SIDPLAYER NEWS FILE #2  11/85 

Welcome to the second news file for Sidplayer.  This document contains full 
instructions on how to use Multiplay (MPLAY), an autoplayer for Sidplayer 
songs.  The program plays up to 51 songs in any order selected. 

The KPLAY and MPLAY players and the Sidplayer songs are intended for 
everyone's enjoyment, and may be freely distributed. 

Sidplayer songs are created using the Sidplayer Editor by Harry Bratt.  The 
Editor is found in the book "ALL ABOUT THE COMMODORE 64, VOLUME TWO" by Craig 
Chamberlain, published by COMPUTE! Books.  A disk for the book is also 
available from COMPUTE!. 

The Editor is a copyrighted, commercially sold program to be used only by the 
purchasers of Volume Two.  It is not in the Public Domain and should not be 
freely distributed. 

Please respect the legitimate expectation of the authors for a fair return on 
their efforts.  Thank you. 

Multiplay is a machine language program with a BASIC header.  To run 
Multiplay, enter the command LOAD "MPLAY",8 followed by the command RUN after 
the program has loaded. 

If MPLAY is the first file on your disk (the first file appearing in the 
directory), you can load it using the command LOAD "M*",8.  To make MPLAY be 
the first file on a disk, SAVE it to a newly formatted disk. 

Having MPLAY be the first file also makes it convenient to use the Commodore 
Run/Stop autoload and run feature on some fast loader cartridges. 

When you run MPLAY, it will list in three columns the names of all the 
Sidplayer songs on the disk.  Sidplayer songs are identified by a .MUS 
extender at the end of their filename.  The .MUS extender, however, will not 
be shown with the names on the screen. 

If there are no Sidplayer songs on the disk, the program will print the 
message NO MUSIC FILES ON DISK - INSERT ANOTHER DISK AND PRESS F5.  After you 
insert a new disk and press F5, the program will search for song names in the 
new directory and list them in the columns. 

Each of the three columns can display up to seventeen songs.  If the disk 
contains more than 3*17=51 songs, the extra songs will not be listed and the 
border will be set to gray as a warning. 

Multiplay can play only those songs that are listed in the columns.  For this 
reason it is strongly suggested that you never put more than 51 Sidplayer 
songs on a disk side.  Catalogs for Sidplayer songs are released after every 
50 songs to help encourage this practice. 

After the songs are listed, an arrow cursor will appear at the top left song 
name.  You can use the cursor movement keys to move the cursor to any row and 
column position. 

To select a song, move the cursor to the name of the song and press F1.  The 
song name will change to be displayed in reverse letters.  Additional songs 
can be selected simply by moving the cursor to them and pressing F1. 

The order in which songs are selected is significant.  Multiplay remembers the 
order in which you select the songs, and later will play them in that order. 
If you want to hear the songs in a certain order, be sure to select them in 
that order. 

To cancel a selection, move the cursor back to the song name and press F1 
again.  The reverse letters will switch back to normal to confirm that the 
song is no longer selected. 

One of the nicest features of Multiplay is that you can set it to play all of 
the songs on the disk.  To do this, just press F3.  This causes the cursor to 
run through the columns and select each song not already selected. 

The F3 feature does not change the playing order of the songs that were 
already selected.  Thus, if you want to play all the songs on the disk but 
want to hear certain songs first, you can select them using F1 and then press 
F3 to select the remaining songs. 

You may also cancel individual songs after using F3, in case you want to hear 
all the songs on the disk except one or two.  For example, this feature is 
handy if you want to play all the songs on the disk but two of the files are 
the left and right halves of a song for two computers.  These files are 
intended to be played simultaneously, not separately, and can be canceled by 
F1 after F3 has been pressed. 

To cancel all of the selections and start over again, press F4 (shifted F3). 
All of the song names will be restored to normal letters. 

Once you have made your selections, press F7 to start the playing.  The 
program will switch to the playing screen, load the first song and print its 
text lines, and start playing.  When the song is done, Multiplay will 
automatically load the next song in the sequence and start playing it.  This 
will continue until all of the songs have been played.  Multiplay then returns 
to the screen with the song names. 

To stop a song before it is done playing and make Multiplay skip to the next 
song, press any key other than a function key, such as the space bar.  The 
playing will stop, and the next song in the sequence will be loaded and played. 

If you press one of the function keys to stop the playing, Multiplay will 
return to the song name screen rather than continue with the next song.  The 
cursor will point at the song that had been playing. 

When you want to hear songs on another disk, insert the new disk and press F5. 
A new listing of song names in three columns will be printed, and the program 
will be ready for you to make your new selections. 

Here is a summary of the meanings of the function keys: 

F1 SELECT OR CANCEL A SONG 
F3 SELECT ALL REMAINING SONGS 
F4 CANCEL ALL SONGS 
F5 NEW DISK DIRECTORY 
F7 START PLAYING IN ORDER SELECTED 

Pressing the F7 key will not do anything if no songs have been selected. 

There are two other special features built into Multiplay.  The F8 key can be 
used to start the playing, just like F7, but it will cause the playing to be 
continuous.  This means that after all of the songs have been played, 
Multiplay will recycle back to the first one and start all over again, 
forever, until a function key is pressed. 

The other feature is that whereas F7 always makes the playing start at the 
beginning of the sequence, F8 can be used to make the playing continue at a 
song that was stopped.  For example, if the fourth song in a sequence is being 
played when you press a function key, the playing can be restarted at that 
song by pressing F8 rather than F7. 

When you are done using Multiplay, press Run/Stop Restore to return to BASIC. 